Form is more potent when decoupled with direct contextual meaning. In my painting practice, I divest daily forms and colors of their mundane habitat, allowing them to play freely along the border of familiarity and pure abstraction. Without prescription, my work invites the viewer into a space — be it serene, tempestuous, or altogether perplexing. Within that space, the viewer is liberated from the hard-edged meaning of day-to-day life and can actively observe whatever sensations, thoughts and feelings are invoked.
Much of my work starts with taking photographs and then transposing them into paintings. In that process, I emphasize color and composition while allowing the literal subjects of the photograph to fade away. Other times I work more instinctively and translate the momentum of a mood or physical sensation into an abstract visual field. In either case, I tease out the visual elements that make an image satisfying and powerful, expressing them without adherence to figurative meaning. This process is personal and intimate, simultaneously encompassing significant intensity, exuberance and even playfulness. The active nature of the way I work is an attempt to preserve that momentary energy and feeling into a strong, enduring physical form.
I take my formal inspiration from photographs, maps, nature, architecture, street signs, advertisements and everything in between, but those are just the building blocks. Constructing them with momentum and grace into abstract containers for sensation and beauty is my goal.
— TC